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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 0237.PDF
FLIGHT, 20 February 1953 235 CIVIL AVIATION ATLANTIC FREIGHT APPLICATION APPROVED I T was announced by the M.C.A. last Friday that the Minister had approved applications by Airwork, Ltd., to operate scheduled all-freight services between London and Canada and the United States for a period of ten years. The announcement contained the usual proviso that approval was "subject to certain conditions being satisfied." Airwork's applications, made some months ago, mentioned an initial frequency of two services weekly on both the New York and Montreal routes, using Yorks and Tudors (although the company has also referred to the possible employment of Britannia Freighters at a later date). No further information is available as to the proposed date of starting the services or the type of aircraft to be operated. Hunting Air Trans port, Ltd., also submitted applications to operate all-freight services on the same routes, using American aircraft (DC-4S, DC-6As and/or Super Constellations), but no decision has been announced in this case. Although B.O.A.C. has already announced its intention of buying five Britannia Freighters, aircraft which can obviously be used to advantage on the North Atlantic route, the Corporation has not yet applied to run any new all-freight services. It will be remembered that when the Government's "new deal for the independents" was announced last July, both B.O.A.C and B.E.A. undertook to keep their freighting activities within their existing network during the following twelve months. However, a spokes man stated on Monday that "the Corporation regards the carriage of freight by air as part of its statutory obligations, and intends, on or after July 15th, to make application for formal licence [to operate North Atlantic freight services]. . . . Notification of this intention has already been given to the M.C.A. . . ." The state ment added that "the economy of passenger services would be severely affected by any diminution of the Corporation's ability to attract the carriage of freight." There is little doubt that foreign airlines will make a determined effort to increase their Atlantic freight traffic in the near future; in the circumstances, the Minister may find it difficult to decide upon the degree of competition between the British carriers which can economically be permitted. The following internal services to the Channel Islands have also been approved by the Minister of Civil Aviation :—Bristol— Jersey and/or Guernsey : Morton Air Services, Ltd., for seven years; Liverpool—Cardiff and/or Bristol—Guernsey and/or Jersey : Cambrian Air Services, Ltd., for ten years; Manchester— Cardiff and/or Bristol—Guernsey and/or Jersey (winter service): Cambrian Air Services, Ltd., for ten years; Newcastle and/or West Hartlepool—Jersey : B.K.S. Aerocharter, Ltd., for seven years; Croydon or Gatwick—Guernsey and/or Jersey (summer weekends) : Transair, Ltd., for seven years. A SCOTTISH SERVICE WITHDRAWN /~VN Friday Scottish Airlines announced "with regret" that their ^•^ daily service between Prestwick, Burtonwood and London had been withdrawn "as it has not been found to be economic as a single service." The parent company, Scottish Aviation, Ltd., added that it was satisfied that "nothing more could have been done on its part or that of the Ministry of Civil Aviation to render possible the continuation of the services. . . ." Six weekly return services have been operated on this route by Scottish Airlines, using DC-3S, since June, 1951; by the end of 1952 27,192 passengers had been carried. The scheduled time of arrival at Northolt from Glasgow and Burtonwood was 1100 hr and the return service did not leave until 1815 hr, which meant that the aircraft was normally kept on the ground for over seven hours during the day. I.A.T.A. FREIGHT CONFERENCE THANKS to the efficient rate-making machinery provided by x the International Air Transport Association, no unseemly price-wars are waged on the world's airways, and the small-to- medium airline stands a reasonable chance of survival. Con versely, any attempt by one company to maintain an artificially high level of fares and rates is almost certain to be defeated when the airlines join conference to determine the standard tariff for a given region. Whatever its shortcomings, this system of com promise produced the "tourist" fares which gave such a fillip to transatlantic passenger travel and now promise to have a com parable effect in Europe. On Monday a new I.A.T.A. conference began in New York, where traffic representatives of the member-airlines are discussing the possible scale of reductions in North Atlantic freight charges. A reduction of no less than 45 per cent in rates for over 3,000 different commodities has already been advocated by Pan American World Airways. Explaining the philosophy behind this proposal, Mr. Wallis Lipscomb, vice-president (traffic and sales), stated that it would enable air cargo in a wide variety of items to under-bid surface costs in the Atlantic trade. He added : "If international air cargo is to play its part in stimulating the growth of two-way trade, we must break away in the Atlantic as we have in Latin America from an air cargo rate-structure geared to small ship ment." THE CORPORATION'S OCTOBER FIGURES IN October, 1952, B.E.A. flew 31,303,000 passenger-miles and carried 115,000 passengers, increases of 21 and 27 per cent respectively when compared with October, 1951. Capacity ton- miles increased by 26 per cent to 5,977,000, and load ton-miles by 19.5 per cent to 3,717,000. Tons of freight and mail carried totalled 1,515 and 537 respectively. During the four-week period September 28th to October 25th, B.O.A.C. carried 21,000 passengers, 518 tons of freight and 227 tons of mail; 72,962,000 passenger-miles were flown. Ton- miles available totalled 18,059,000 and ton-miles flown 10,928,000, resulting in an overall load factor of 60.5 More than twice as many passengers as in October, 1951, and nearly twice as much freight, were carried on the scheduled services operated by independent airlines in association with the Corporations. Their figures included : 171,000 aircraft miles flown; 4,000 passengers carried; 1,415 tons of freight carried; 2,171,000 passenger-miles, and overall load factor 71.3 per cent. S.A.S. 1952 PROFIT D URING the fiscal year from October 1st, 1951, to Septem ber 30th, 1952, Scandinavian Airlines System report a net profit of £107,723, compared with £175,046 for 1950-51. Revenue totalled £15,543,973, and operating expenses £14,126,495, result ing in a gross profit of £1,417,478. Revenue ton-kilometres flown during the year amounted to some 82 million, an increase of 17.4 per cent over last year's total; 568,292 passengers, 8,501,494 kgs of freight, and 2,951,210 kgs of mail were flown— increase of 18, 11 and 26 per cent respectively. COMPLAINTS ABOUT LYMPNE HAVING paid some £32,000 to the M.C.A. over the past two years in the form of landing-fees incurred at Lympne Airport, Silver City Airways have been looking forward with some im patience to long-promised improvements in the conditions of the airfield. Last year Lympne became waterlogged for five weeks and the airline was forced to continue its operations from Southend and Blackbushe, at an estimated loss of £500 per day. Last Friday pilots reported that braking action was nil and the ground was again too soft for safe operation; in fact, one aircraft became bogged down. On the following day services were flown from Southend and on Sunday and Monday from Blackbushe. In replying to the allegations concerning the airfield surface, the M.C.A. have stated that the airfield is not closed; that its condition is considerably better than during the same period last year and that drainage is proving "quite satisfactory." Lack of interest in the future of Lympne, which has proved itself as « money-earning airport, seems to be the real cause of this unsatis factory state of affairs. Silver City have expressed willingness to buy the airport over a period of years, but its ownership has been the subject of constant changes in official policy. Finally, last autumn, Lympne was offered to the Folkestone Council, whose decision is still awaited. SOVIET AIRLINE ANNIVERSARY THROUGHOUT last week the Soviet radio network and Press devoted much time and space to the publicizing of the 30th anniversary of the setting-up of Soviet civil airlines. On February nth, eve of the anniversary, Lt.-Gen. E. Beletsky con tributed to the Krasnaya Zvezda ("Red Star") a lengthy article on the development of Soviet civil aviation, in which he stated that the "freight carried by the civilian air fleet in 1952 was 9.2 times as large as in 1940, and the aggregate length of air lines was 2.5 times as great." Under the current five-year plan (1951-1955), Soviet civil air lines are to be developed further, the article continued: "The fleet of transport planes and the number of airports equipped for day and night flying is to be doubled; during those five years airborne freight is to increase not less than 100 per cent. New airlines will be launched under the plan to establish direct air communcations to the Ukraine and to the Urals and Central Asia." Beletsky wrote that planes of the Soviet civil lines are already flying on a round-the-clock basis, carrying not only large amounts
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